Beauty salon hits the road for its clients

Saturday

Feb 23, 2008 at 12:01 AMFeb 23, 2008 at 11:23 PM

For K&K Beauty, it’s not just what it can offer its clients, but where it can offer it. Katherine O’Connor and business partner Kimberly Petruzzi travel all over Eastern Massachusetts and beyond to professionally apply makeup and create vibrant hairstyles for clients as they get ready for weddings, proms or other special events.

Jeff Mucciarone

For K&K Beauty, it’s not just what it can offer its clients, but where it can offer it.

Canton-based K&K Beauty takes its makeup and hair design abilities right to its customers. Canton resident Katherine O’Connor and business partner Kimberly Petruzzi travel all over Eastern Massachusetts and beyond to professionally apply makeup and create vibrant hairstyles for clients as they get ready for weddings, proms or other special events.

“It’s just such a convenient way of doing things,” O’Connor said.

Beauty salons are commonplace throughout Massachusetts and the country, but beauty salons that travel are much more rare, said O’Connor, who grew up and spent most of her life living in Canton.

Most of her business is in the greater Boston area and Cape Cod, but O’Connor, 29, has traveled for customers as far away as New York, and in one instance, all the way to Mexico.

Weddings provide K&K Beauty with most of its business, but O’Connor said her company is prepared for any number of special occasions. Petruzzi focuses on hair styling, and O’Connor focuses on makeup, though they both have experience in either capacity.

With bridal parties often going to salons together the day of the wedding, things can get hectic, especially with so many last minute things to do. Along with eliminating any potential travel time for the bridal party, K&K Beauty allows people to receive beauty treatments in the comfort of their own home, hotel or resort, O’Connor said.

And while traveling all over can be interesting, it’s the customers who make it all go, O’Connor said.

“It’s not where you go but who you work with,” she said.

The roots of the company are simple.

Both O’Connor and Petruzzi worked together at Hair Essentials in Weymouth, Mass., and went out together one night. They talked about their own interests and, finding themselves on the same page, they decided to start their own business, O’Connor said.

For a few years, the pair worked together on a freelance basis. Now, the company is fully launched with its own Web site, www.kkbeauty.com, O’Connor said.

This time of year is a little slow with few weddings taking place during the winter, but O’Connor and Petruzzi are gearing up for the wedding season this spring, which will be here sooner rather than later.

O’Connor said she likes being able to try different things with different people — all while using her own creativity to add a little something to the look.

“You can take somebody and give them a very natural look or a very glamorous look,” O’Connor said. “At the end of the night, they can just wash it off. You can play with it. It’s so versatile.”

Seeing peoples’ reactions when she finishes is her favorite part of the process, O’Connor said.

“And hopefully it’s a good one,” she quipped.

O’Connor’s industry is very much word of mouth, and though she does advertise, her last client could be her best advertiser, she said.

Before opening K&K Beauty, O’Connor attended the Learning Institute for Beauty Sciences in Boston, and received a certificate in advanced makeup training from renowned Boston-based makeup artist David Nicholas. O’Connor went to high school at Notre Dame Academy in Hingham.

O’Connor lives with her 3-year old daughter, Sophia, at their home on Green Lodge Street, which is where K&K Beauty is based as well.

O’Connor suggested that soon-to-be brides check out a few different places for hair and make-up.

“Find out what you’re most comfortable with,” O’Connor said. “And what looks you like best.”

She cautioned potential clients against going into salons with a singular view of what they want to look like.

“You could have so many other looks that could work,” she said, adding that it’s important to try a few different looks along the way.

But she does want some direction or a starting point, she said.

“I need something,” she said.

Though she said having makeup done professionally for a wedding is best, she said if people choose to do it themselves, they should “go heavier for photographic reasons.”

“Everything shows up in the photos,” she said.

For more information, go to www.kkbeauty.com. K&K Beauty is located at 48 Green Lodge St. and can be reached at (781) 686-0481.

Jeff Mucciarone of the Canton Journal can be reached at jmucciar@cnc.com or by calling (508) 967-3512.